Laundry dryer convertible into a coiffure dryer



Oct. 2.1, 1958 N. B. WALES 2,856,700

LAUNDRY DRYER CONVERTIBLE INTO A COIFFURE DRYER INVENTOR Oct. 21, 1958 N. B. WALES 2,856,700

LAUNDRY DRYER CONVERTIBLE INTO A COIFFURE DRYER Filed Dec. 13, 1956 A 2 sheets-Sheet 2 jing@ 25 Tc' Z9 *i5 /Zd y0 f5 lffl W1 M f\\ M f'\^/f.\;1\\f:`\ f/ y 1 a, /9/ ii @D Z0 www y!! im fz lq. f?\950 55) INVENTOR United States Patent Office 2,856,700 Patented Oct. 21, 1958 2,856,700 LAUNDRY DRYER CONVERTIBLE INTO A COIFFURE DRYER Nathaniel B. Wales, Southampton, N. Y. Application December 13, 1956, Serial No. 628,178 8 Claims. (Cl. 34-91) This invention relates to the conversion of a laundry dryer into a dryer for coiffures. More particularly this invention discloses two means of accomplishing this conversion. The first, strictly mechanical, by the provision of a diversion of air flow by valves and a nozzle. The other means, utilizes a manually flexible tubular clothes rack which obviates the use of valve structures to accomplish the same result.

In spite of the prevalent use of washing machines, it is well known, that women do not use them for fear of injury to many items of their wearing apparel. These are hand washed, and in general, are washed in the conventional wash basin in the bathroom.

Also, after shampooing their hair, which is also done in the basin in the bathroom, the only means of quickly drying the hair, is by the use of the conventional electric hair dryer, which is a hand sustained unit which is manually held above the head while in use.

With this premise in mind, this invention is highly useful and very convenient. It can be made either portable, that is, on a castor equipped pedestal or can be permanently affixed to the wall of the bathroom and swung into operative position or into its stored position.

It will efciently and quickly dry those items of apparel which are necessarily hand-washed and due to the specific angle of air discharge against the laundry as well as critical velocities issuing from these orifices in the clothes rack and their impingement on the articles being dried, these air velocities cause the drying apparel to oscillate or flutter during drying, which movement is, in effect, an equivalent of tumbling the drying wash in a laundry drying machine to give that soft, pliable feeling of the article after complete drying.

Again, by a simple operation of conversion, a woman can now sit under the warm-air discharge of the invention and without any manual effort obtain a drying of her coiffure comparable to that done by professional drying equipment.

Its wide use may be expected both from its utility as well as its relatively low first-cost, little more than the above mentioned electric hair dryer.

The objects of my invention are:

(l) The easy conversion of a clothes dryer into an efficient dryer for coiffures,

(2) A device of prime utility.

(3) A device of relatively low cost.

(4) The conversion of a clothes dryer into a hair dryer which has the minimum of operative parts.

Referring to the drawings:

Figure l is a side elevation, shown broken away in part and more particularly illustrating a wall type of the invention with swiveling drying racks.

Figure 2 is a view in plan of Fig. l with one of the clothes racks partially in section.

Figure 3 is a section taken on line 3 3 in Fig. l showing the telescopic tubular members collapsed and rotated in respect to each other to close the laundry drying airorifices as and when the invention is used to dry coiffures.

Figure 4 taken on line 4 4 in Fig. l is an illustrative sectional View to show the laundry draped on the clothes rack when the telescopic rack is extended and the air orifices are open.

f Figure 5 is an elevation partially in section of the lowermost rack as seen in Figure 1, with the coiffure drying nozzle positioned thereon and coiffure.

Figure 6 is a side elevation of the invention, embodying the second means of the invention for conversion, by the use of a flexible clothes rack. The laundry thereon is shown with its frontal portion broken away.

Figure 7 is a view, in plan, illustrating the flexible clothes a rack flexed into its coiffure drying position and retained thereby latching means.

Figure 8 is a view comparable to Fig. 7 but in elevation.

Figure 9 is a section taken on line 9 9 in Fig. 6 to illustrate the dual series of air orifices and their angular relation to laundry draped on the manually flexible clothes rack in order to ripple or flutter the drying laundry.

Figure l0 is an electrical wiring diagram showing means to obtain a variable degree of heat by a three pole switch.

Referring to the specifications and drawings:

Numeral 1 is an electric motor directly connected to a suitable air blower 2 and with the electric resistance elements 3 constitute the warm air-source used in the invention and housed in casing 4. A multi-pole switch 5, see wiring diagram l0, enables a varying degree of heat to be available for heating the air from blower 2. On the upper open end of casing 4 is secured a metal hub or bearing 6 having a plurality of air ports 7 through which heated air flows into the individually rotatable casings 8, each of which serve as swiveling support members for the plurality of tubular clothes racks, as shown 3 in number, composed of members 9 and 9 and cooperating telescopic members 10 and 10. Closure caps 11 close the ends of tubular members 10. However a detachable cap 11 fits on the lower larger diameter member 10. Referring to Figures l and 2 there is illustratively shown air-outlet orifices 12 and 13 in the respectively telescopic tubular members 9 and 9 and 10 and 10.

When the invention is used for drying laundry, see Figure 4, air from the above referred to air-source flows through orifices 12 and 13 and impinges on the inner surface of any laundry 15 draped thereover. Suitable wall supports 16 secured to housing 4 sustain the unit to a wall 17 or the like. An electric supply cord 18 is suitably connected into the wiring circuit, shown in Fig. l0.

When the invention is desired to be used as a coiffure dryer, the rack members 10 are telescopically pushed into tubular members 9 as is seen in the position of the top rack member 9 10 in Fig. l. The tubular member 10 is then manually rotated in respect to member 9 which relative displacement between the two is seen in section in Fig. 3 causing air-outlet orifice 13 to move out of register with air-outlet orifice 12 thereby closing off all air exhaust from this rack. The same procedure is then done to the two lower clothes racks and the cap 11 is removed from the lower rack 10. It is noted that the lower rack 9 10 is of larger diameter than the upper two racks which difference in diameter provides sufficient air flow-area for the entire discharge from blower 2 to freely enter coiffure drying nozzle 14, see Fig. 5, as and when it is placed on the open end of said tubular rack 9 10.

In this manner the invention accomplishes its conversion from a laundry dryer to a hair dryer as above described and illustrated in Figs. l-S,

Referring now to Figures 6-9 it is seen that in this embodiment of my invention no use is made of valves to divert the air-flow from its normally linear issuance from orifices in the above described rigid clothes rack but in this embodiment use is made of a flexible or pliable tubular laundry supporting and air circulating means. This in operation drying a However in a plane at right angles to the normal plane of gravity, the support member is so proportioned, that in this plane it is manually pliable in order to bend from its normally linear laundry-drying position into a circular form. It is to be noted that the static air pressure supplied from the blower 2 in housing 19 pneumatically distends the pliable member 29. The heated air in the tubular pliable member 29 ows from the same orifices 12a as are utilized for drying laundry but the air stream therefrom after flexation of the pliable member is redirected into a pattern conforming to the contour of the coiffure, see Fig. 8.

ln Fig. 6 the housing 19 is similar to housing 4 in Pig. l and also encloses the same source of heated air under forced circulation and is supported on a telescopic stand by support shaft 23 entering tubular pedestal 20. A suitable set screw 23a secures the desired height of the device. A base 21 on castors 2.2 makes the unit portable. On the upper end of housing 19 is secured a manifold 26. A hinge 24 is fastened to manifold 26 and to the clothes rack support member 35. The parting line 27 formed by the action of hinge 24 permits the flexible member 29 and its flexible support member 33, see Fig. 9, to be lowered by unlatching latch 2S and to assume that position shown in dotted lines 38 in Fig. 6 for a compact storage or non-used position of the invention.

Support member 33 may be made of approximately .020l thick stainless steel, cut to measure, and is secured at one end to member 35 at 36, see Fig. 7 and is suitably secured to flexible tubular member 29 by intermittent securance means 34, see Figs. 8 and 9. On its outer end the plibale member 29 is closed at 30. A hook or its equivalent is secured to the closed end 30 of pliable member 29 and cooperates with a suitable latch 32 on member 26, see Figs. 7 and 8 to maintain the pliable members position, as is seen in Fig. 8, when the laundry dryer has been quickly converted into a coiffure dryer, by its manual exation.

,lt has been found that the use of twin air-outlet orifices 12a, see Fig. 9, and their specific angled air discharge against laundry 28 cause the laundry to ripple into a position shown in dotted lines 28.

Referring to the wiring diagram, Fig. l0, it is desirable to arrange for different temperatures of heated air for use both in laundry drying as well as drying the coiffures. l therefore use a multi-pole switch 37 which in being rotated in varying degree contacts rst resistance circuit 3a or in its next position 3a as well as 3b to give increased temperature and finally 3a, 3b and resistance 3c to give maximum temperature. It is noted from the circuit that the motor 1 operates during these various temperature controls.

This invention lills a present gap in the many home appliances, in that it uniquely performs dual services which are now performed in a laborious manner and in a time consuming procedure.

What l desire to protect by United States Letters Patent is encompassed in the following claims. 1. A laundry drying device convertible into a device to dry coiffures comprising a housing, a source of heated air under forced circulation, said source positioned within said housing, a flexible tubular clothes supporting member, air access means between said source and one end of said member, the other end thereof being closed, air outlet means in said tubular member, a support element for said flexible tubular member, and associated therewith,

said support element formed to be manually pliant in a plane at right angles to the force of gravity yet able to support the weight of laundry in said gravity plane whereby when said device is utilized for drying clothes it is substantially linear Whereas when it is employed to dry a coiffure its flexible support and structure permits it to be manually deliected into a form substantially conforming to the contour of a human head and means to retain said flexible tubular supporting member in said last mentioned position.

2. A laundry dryer convertible into a hair dryer comprising a source of heated air under forced circulation, a pliant tubular clothes supporting member, said member in open communication with said heated air source but closed at its outer end, air outlet means along said member, a support element, said support element secured to said tubular member, said support element being manually deflectible only in a horizontal plane and means to retain said support element and tubular member in its deflected position when said laundry drying device is used as a hair drying device.

3. A laundry drying device convertible into a coiffure drying device comprising a housing, a source of heated air under forced circulation positioned within said housing, an outlet for said heated air in said housing, a exible tubular member open at one end and closed at the other end and having air discharge orifices between said ends, means for attaching the open end of said member to the outlet of said housing, a support element associated with said exible tubular member throughout substantially its linear extent, said support element being manually deflectible in only a horizontal plane, said support element normally holding said tubular member in linear extended position and furnishing sufficient rigidity to said tubular member in a gravity plane to adequately support laundry draped over said member for drying purposes, and means for retaining said tubular member in substantially circular form when said tubular member and its said supporting element are manually deflected when the laundry drying device is to be used as a hair drying device.

4. The subject matter of claim 3 wherein said supporting element comprises a strip of flat resilient material.

5. The subject matter of claim 3 wherein said orices are arranged in two parallel rows, one row on each side of the median line of said tubular member.

6. The subject matter of claim 3 wherein said means for attaching the open end of said tubular member to the outlet of said housing includes a hinged connection whereby the tubular member may be folded with respect to said housing for compact storage purposes.

7. A laundry drying device convertible into a coiffure dryer comprising a source of heated air under forced circulation, a flexible tubular laundry supporting and air circulating means, said flexible tubular means including reinforcing means affording adequate sustaining strength therein in a vertical plane to support laundry draped thereover but` pliable enough to permit the same to be manually flexed into a loop for coiffure drying purposes, means to direct said heated air into one end of said flexible tubular means, the other end thereof being closed, and orifices formed along the extent of said exible tubular means.

8. The subject matter of claim 7 and means for retaining said loop in said flexed position when the device is to be used as a hair dryer.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,454,151 Brown May 8, 1923 1,485,983 Hudson Mar. 4, 1924 1,889,338 Peterson Nov. 29, 193.2 l2,329,352 Krueger Sept. 14, .1943 2,707,838 Braman May 10, 1955.` 

